Please Don’t Be A “PreMed Clone!”
Since I started working with premeds, I have read over 4,000 personal statements. That’s a LOT of essays. And while everyone has their own story, there is one essay format that just KILLS an application. Literally, this format bores admissions committees to death.
The absolutely worst essays I have seen include, among other things, the most boring list of events. It looks something like this:
I was born (good for you)
I went to grade school and high school, did pretty good (yawn)
I went to college at [college name]. Did some stuff. (snore)
I wanna help people. (yippee for you)
Accept me at your med school, I want to be a doctor. (huh?!)
This is BORING and DULL and NOBODY CARES!
Do you know what this format does? It makes you a “Pre-med clone.”
And what’s worse, if you’re a clone, you don’t actually get rejected right away…no, that would be a mercy killing.
Instead, med schools will string you along…telling you that you are “on hold” or “pending” or “pending for interview” or “waitlisted”—all of which means the same thing! And then a year goes by and you finally face reality. You say to yourself, “Shoot! I guess I’m just not getting into med school this year.”
So please, please don’t waste your time writing your story based on a calendared sequence. You are writing, not calendaring, so you can use my literary license and rearrange the sequence of events in order to improve the quality of your essay.
Is this ok to do? YES!
